About Barbara Lau

Posts by Barbara Lau:

When people are thinking about switching to e-cigarettes, they have a few questions. An e-cigarette is supposed to be healthier than a regular one, but does it have in common certain things with a traditional one? It is better in many ways for sure. Your nails won’t get yellow tinge as well as your hands. Besides that, you won’t have to worry about the smell or your breath. With an e-cigarette, days when you smelled of smoke, are gone. Even if you are a passionate smoker, we are sure these things bother you. You want to enjoy a cigarette, but still smell nice and fresh. The smell of the smoke is not attractive at all, and many can’t stand it.

The Question

Usually, these facts are known to the majority of people. There is one thing that many are not sure about. Will e-cigarette stain your teeth? This is something that a lot of smokers simply hate. The reactions of other people would be, “Why don’t you just stop smoking then?” It is a normal reaction, but many forget about the other products that stain the teeth. Are you drinking coffee every day? Do you love tea? Is your way of relaxing drinking wine? If the answer is yes, then stop doing that for the sake of your teeth colour. These drinks are staining liquids. Maybe there is a way to enjoy something without consequences. So, let’s get back to the question about e-cigarettes. If you were wondering about it too, now you will get an answer. We will tell you all you need to know.

Good News

You can still have white teeth while using an e-cigarette. Generally, it won’t stain your teeth, definitely not as bad as a regular cigarette would. However, that can happen if it has colouring in it or a tar. If that is not the case, there is no need to worry. Why is that so? As previously said, if a cigarette has tar, it will stain your teeth. Tar is exactly what is causing it, as well as the ash from a cigarette.

Not Perfect

It is true that the side effects are not as strong, but you can’t expect perfection. An e-cigarette contains nicotine which can give your teeth that yellow tinge. Nicotine is colourless, but it can become yellowish when it is combined with with oxygen molecules. Even so, vaping is still better than smoking. It will stain your teeth less.﻿

An Advice

If you care a lot about your teeth and you want them to stay pearly white, there are ways to do so. If you combine an e-cigarette with a regular dental hygiene, you can achieve the results you want. You don’t have to sacrifice anything. Cleaning your teeth twice a day as well as flossing will help you avoid staining. Besides that, we recommend that you visit a dentist every six months for a check-up and cleaning. It is not that often, but it helps a lot.

There is no doubt that quitting smoking is such a hard thing to do. It can be a long process. Some people turn to patches, some to pills, and there are those who can’t do it no matter what they try. Somehow, they always go back to their bad habit. Truth to be told, there is no guarantee that anything will work from the start. Your willpower is the most important, it plays the biggest role. When you combine that with a helpful tool, you are almost there. You only have to find what works the best for you, and there is something that worked for many. Gums and patches are a fine alternative, but there is a better one. E-cigarettes are the best choice, and many can confirm that.

Too Many Options

If you want to start with the transition, you have to find out what’s the best cigarette. They are becoming more and more popular since they are giving a great result. There is a downside to it, though. Since they work like a charm, the market is full of them. If you look them up, you will find a lot of options, and that can be overwhelming. How to know which one is the best? Well, by spending hours and hours on reading and searching. Nobody has time for that. Luckily, we did the research for you. There are many good ones, so it wasn’t easy to choose. In the end, we managed to make a list of the best. If you are interested on what we based our choice, and what’s the best cigarette to stop smoking, continue with the reading. These are our recommendations.﻿

V2 Standard Kit

This one is made for the smokers who want to quit, but want to have a feel of a real cigarette. It looks like a traditional cigarette, which makes the switch much easier. If you like a bigger selection of the flavors, you will love it. Not only there us a variety of flavours, but nicotine levels too. The batteries are also included in the kith. You can get around 200 puffs per one charge. One more thing, it has refillable tanks. Usually, the beginners love that addition.

Blu Disposables

When it comes to disposable cigarettes, these one is always ranked high. Why? Because of its useable life and vapor production. It may cost a little more than others, but that is for a reason. The cheaper ones have some kind of issue, and you won’t be completely satisfied with them. They can have poor battery life or a bad flavor. So, give more and get more. Blu E-cig has five different flavors while others usually have two. Besides regular and menthol flavor, it also has cherry, vanilla and glacier mint.

ePuffer Magnum

You don’t have to think about charging when you have this cigar. It comes with a charging pack that is shaped like a box, which makes it great for travelling. They designed it to be user-friendly, so it doesn’t have screws, it uses magnets instead. Go to work, visit a friend, and have a charged cigarette at any time.

VaporFi Express

If you didn’t have any experience with E-cigarettes, start with this one. It is the best choice for the beginners, and it has everything you need. VaporFi wants to help smokers who are transitioning, so they found a way to make the switch easier. They know how tough it is, but it doesn’t have to be anymore. That is not all. You get a charger, adapter, 2 devices, 3 mini tanks and a 30 ml bottle of juice bland that you can customize on your own.

Halo G6 E-Cigarette

To be honest, it is not the cheapest cigarette out there. However, it offers quite enough for its price. You will love its design, which is futuristic and truly gorgeous. There are color choices too. You can pick from pink, black, green, demon red, blue and more. Not only it looks beautiful, it is user-friendly with a pleasant taste. The battery is long-lasting as well as the cartridges. You can use it for almost a month before ordering new cartridges. Even the cartridges have more flavors. Are you a fan of mint or cocoa?

Halo Triton Tank System

This is another great product from Halo. It also looks stylish like the previous one. Halo really knows how to make an attractive design. You can use it with ease. Plus, life battery is great. Tobacco e-juices are more than delicious. You can choose from a variety of colors even with this one. The battery is included. Besides that, you will also get two tanks, a wall charger, a USB adapter and a beautiful carrying case. That is plenty of stuff.

That is our list. Pick one that suits you the most. They are all good and have great features. Some are pricey, but there are more affordable ones. See what works for you the best and try it out. We tried to make your choice easier and safer with these recommendations. Have fun with interesting and modern designs. Enjoy different flavors and change them as you wish. Take the next step, and get closer to quitting. Transitioning to e-cigarette will make the process more pleasant. This is a great opportunity to make some changes for the better. Wait no longer and purchase your new non-traditional and healthier cigarette. We are sure you will be satisfied with it.

As many others, I also thought that my life will be boring without the cigars. How am I going to drink my coffee and relieve all that stress without it? It was a horrifying thought, to be honest. I was so used to having cigars in my life, that I couldn’t imagine it any other way. Still, there were things that bothered me about smoking. I wasn’t completely satisfied even when I was a smoker. I listed all of the cons and focused on them. What kept me going was rereading that list every single day. Even in the beginning, I started noticing some changes. After I finally quit, I felt like a new person. It truly felt like a started a new chapter in my life, a healthier one.

No More Smoke

Besides me, my friends also agree on how quitting smoking changed my life. I was never too keen on smoke and its smell. What made it even worse, were the comments from my non-smoker friends. They would say things like:”That perfume smells so nice, but the smoke is overpowering it.”, “Don’t you hate when the smoke gets in the curtains?” Yes, I did hate it, but somehow, you get used to it. Now, my apartment, as well as my clothing, smells great. I feel cleaner, and my friends love it too.﻿

Active Life

From time to time, I would try running or exercising, but it was hard. I would easily get tired and ran out of breath. Since I quit smoking, I tried exercising again, and the difference was big. Nowadays, I run almost every morning. Workouts were a great alternative when I was feeling stressed out, and later, it became a habit. If I want to relax, I walk or enjoy a nice cup of tea on the terrace. It soothes me much faster than a cigar ever did. After I take a moment to think, my mood goes up.

Peaceful Mind

Not only I feel better psychically, but also mentally. Before making a decision, I think about it and analyze everything. Even if that decision making can be stressful, I don’t get overwhelmed. Somehow, I feel more at peace. I enjoy the moment and think about other things. In the past, I would grab my pack of cigars and light one after another. I thought that was exactly what I needed, in order to feel calm. Even the people around me noticed that changed. They say I am more cheerful, than I was ever before.

More Time

It sounds funny, but if you are a smoker, you think about smoking a lot. When the craving emerges, you can’t think about anything else. It was the same with me. I spent a lot of time planning my next cigar, and I couldn’t concentrate if I haven’t smoked for a while. Many don’t even realize how much time they waste by doing so. When I’m talking to my friends now, I am more into what they are saying. I completely concentrate on other people as well as on myself. It is as if a part of me is gone, a part that took a lot of my time. I can never get that time back, but I can try to live in every moment. That is exactly what I am doing – I try to take as much as possible from any situation.

If you think you are not strong enough to succeed, read this again. Don’t these changes affect you? They can happen to you too, but you need to try, and see for yourself. I can’t lie and say it was easy, it definitely wasn’t. What I can say is it was worth it, and I would do it again if I had to. There is no way I would go back! I cherish the life I am living now.

If you are eager to quit smoking, but you are not making any progress, know that you are not the only one. Non-smokers might have told you it is not a big deal, and they probably don’t understand your hardship. They usually think that a person simply doesn’t want to change. That must get on your nerves all the time. Addiction is tough, and no one can overcome it with ease. Luckily, it is possible to live without a cigar. If you know someone like that, ask for an advice. However, their way might not work for you. We are all different, so that is quite natural. Try to find what motivates you the most and use it to your advantage.﻿

Have a Reason

Don’t get discouraged if you are on your own, you can still manage to succeed. All you need is a quit smoking inspiration. You probably have your reasons why you want to stop, but as long as you are not making any progress, they are not enough. Find a strong and a powerful reason. For an example, if you have a family, think of them and their health. Do you want them to become smokers one day? Do you want them to get sick? Second-hand smoke is harmful as well, and they didn’t choose to get harmed. Also, think of your own health. If you get a lung cancer or a heart disease, your family will suffer too. Remind yourself of the downside, let that be stronger than your urge for a cigarette.

Find a Way to Relax

You had a bad day, so as always, you light up a cigar to relax. That is a common mistake. Many people started smoking because of stress, which is exactly why you should avoid situations that make you tense. Besides, there are so many ways to unwind. Listen to your favourite music, take a walk or exercise. Those are all healthy and good ways to release your tension. Become more activate and bread in the fresh air instead of smoke. There are so many things that you can try out.

Avoid Alcohol

Some started smoking because of alcohol. They would light up a few cigarettes while drinking with their friends. Drink after drink, cigar after cigar, and there you go, you become addicted. Even if that is not the case, it is still hard to stick to your goals when alcohol is around. In the beginning, limit drinking as much as you can. There are other triggers besides alcohol, like coffee. Try to drink tea, instead of coffee for a few weeks. Anything that might trigger you, switch it with an alternative. It is only temporarily, but it can become another healthier habit.

You probably heard about this term, but you are not sure what does it mean. You know it has something to do with psychotherapy, but what precisely? Well, it is a form of psychotherapy developed by Wilhelm Reich. As you know, psychotherapy is used to improve individual mental health and well being. Also, it tries to resolve behaviours that are troublesome. Before we start with the more detailed explanation, let’s say a few words about its inventor. He is an Austrian psychoanalyst and doctor of medicine. Wilhelm wrote many influential books in his field of work.

What it Means

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Now we can continue with vegetotherapy. It involves manifestations of emotions that are psychical. Analysts believe that stored emotions exist, and that they build tension inside the body. The patient can show strong emotions by physically stimulating effect of the body. You can recognize that tension in restricted or shallow breathing, muscular stress, low libido, posture and facial expressions.

Techniques

There is a technique where the patient should remove clothing and lie down on a bed that has a sheet on it. After doing that, the patient has to breathe rhythmically and deeply. There is an additional one, to tickle the areas of tension. That is known as the “body armour”. This stimulation helps the patient to experience the emotions that are simulated. It will cause the release of emotions. It is nothing unusual to forget about something or to simply bury it. We become unconscious of old memories that can be the cause of mental problems. Sometimes, past feelings or old memories can come to the surface. We suddenly remember them and that can lead to new information and insights.

How Can It Help

Our mind is quite complicated and there is a lot more to learn about it. We can suffer and be depressed, without knowing the cause of it. To find the cause, every single information and memory is of great importance. A trauma from our childhood, that we don’t even remember, can be the trigger for our present behaviour. We may think we forgot about it, but we just stored it, deep inside. It is not present in our conscious, but it is there to torture us until we deal with it. This kind of therapy can help us recover our memory, which can lead to the source of the problem. Once the problem is found, it is much easier to solve it.

No matter what you study or what your job is, you have heard about Sigmund Freud. He was the founder of the term psychoanalysis. The goal of this kind of therapy is to make our unconscious thought conscious. People tend to repress emotions and memories from the past, so an analyst has a difficult task of releasing them. Components of Psychoanalysis includes a few believing. Let’s see what those are.

Tenets of Psychoanalysis

Development of a person is not determined only by inherited traits, but also by forgotten events that happened in early childhood. What determinates human cognition and behaviour are certain drives that are in the unconscious. If you try to bring them out, it will trigger resistance. A common form of resistance is a defense mechanism. There are many ways to learn more about someone’s unconscious part of mind. That material can be found in dreams, misspeaking and unintentional acts. A dream is mostly used component of psychoanalysis. Through therapeutic intervention, those materials are brought into the conscious mind. It can be surprising what can be found there, things that patients weren’t aware of at all. If they dreamed it, they thought of it as nothing, just a dream without a meaning. However, every dream has a meaning. It is connected to the persons mind, therefore, it is showing his wishes, insecurities or thoughts.

How It Works

A psychoanalytic session usually lasts 50 minutes. It is recommended to have a session four or five times a week since it can be a long process. The patient lies on the couch, while the analyst sits behind, so he is out of sight. Then, the patient tells his thoughts. That can include dreams, free associations and fantasies. From all of that, the analyst can find more about patient unconscious conflicts that are causing the symptoms. After that, the patient can gain insight. He becomes conscious of his past and memories that he had buried deep inside. He wasn’t aware of them anymore, but they didn’t disappear, they stayed deep within. No matter how hard someone tries to forget about something, it just switches from conscious to unconscious. Because of that, it emerges in dreams and acts that are unconscious.

Is It Helpful

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Psychoanalysis definitely plays a huge role in psychology. More and more people are turning to it for help. This kind of treatment is getting more and more recognition, especially nowadays, when people are living fast and stressful lives. Even with the smaller mental issues, it is not enough to just share them with a friend. Every disorder requires professional help, nothing less. By doing so, there is hope for improvement and getting better. It is certainly helpful, and it can open people’s eyes.

Were you ever angry or bitter about something? Of course you were, everyone was. There are situations we have every right to be angry. That is understandable, and nothing to be worried about. However, it is not good to feel like that at all times or quite often. Living with mostly negative feelings is not a life at all.﻿

Decide to Change

We should try to control ourselves and concentrate on positive feelings. For some, that can be challenging. There are people who simply can’t understand how that can affect their lives. They think that everyone else is to blame and they have no choice but to be angry. It doesn’t have to be like that, First of all, you have to be decisive. Decide to change for the better. Let us show you how to stop being so angry and bitter.

Stop Making Excuses

You can never be happy and fulfiled as long as you are blaming other for every problem that you have. Usually, people tend to blame their parents for their way of life. It is true that parents can make mistakes when raising their children, they can affect their lives greatly. Even so, using them as an excuse for the rest of your life is wrong. Get over that, and continue with your life. You are the only one who can help yourself. Overcome the hardships and try to build a positive view.

Avoid Stressful Situations

If you are aware of what situations make you angry and out of control, avoid them. Run away from negative situations and negative people. Create your own peaceful space with people who only make you feel good. Avoid confrontations that can only lead to fighting and stress. It may seem hard at the beginning, but that shouldn’t stop you. You control the situation, not the other way around.

Learn to Forgive

As long as you are holding a grudge, you won’t be able to overcome bitterness. If you want to go past that, and live a happier life, forgive others. Some people might not deserve forgiveness, but you will feel more at peace once you do that. It can happen to anyone, we all make mistakes. You never know what you would have done in their situation. Anyhow, move on. When you do that, you won’t be overwhelmed with negative thought and bitterness, as you were before.

This is something that everyone does. Even the ones who are not aware of it, but they do it too. It is, somehow, natural. For example, our upbringing can play a big role. What we saw as children, or what we were taught, stays with us. We do many things unconsciously, we don’t even realize it. If you were used to a certain way of life, you will probably assume that everybody lives like that, it is normal.﻿

Why Is It Bad

We make assumptions, so what? Many people would react this way, thinking it has no importance in our life. That is where they are wrong, it definitely affects our life on a daily basis. Avoid that by finding out how to stop making assumptions. They can be the cause of a bad relationship. Why would doing that hurt your partner, friends or family? The reason is simple. When we assume everything, we become incapable to relate. We think we know how others feel or what they are thinking. What comes after, is not listening. If you know everything, why would you listen, or even communicate? That leads to misunderstanding and a lack of communication. Your loved ones will feel that you don’t care for them and that you don’t understand them. Also, it affects your way of thinking and creativity. You won’t be able to go ahead and make a progress.

How to Fix It

If you realized how bad it is and you are willing to change it, good for you. Making assumptions is curable. There are ways of fixing it. First of all, you have to know when you are doing it. You have to recognize your assumption making. When you do, write it down, have a reminder. Don’t overlook the small assumption, every single one is important. They all can be damaging. You may think a small one, like:”My husband doesn’t love me as much” is not as important, since you assume it from time to time when things aren’t as perfect. That is not true, write it down too. Next step is to ask yourself questions. If you are assuming something, you have to have a reason. We will list you some of the questions that can help you.

Questions

As previously mentioned, we have many assumptions based on our life and the way we wore brought up. So, ask yourself is that really your own opinion or something you heard from somebody else. Did they teach you that, and you never question it? If so, now is the time to question it. Besides that, questions like:”Do I have any facts that prove my thought is true?”, “Do I have any facts that prove my thought is not true?” can clear it up. Don’t just assume it, have proofs that you are right. If you don’t have any proofs for it, then why just bluntly assume it? It makes no sense, and you will see it too. Stop wasting your time, use it for something better.

Since I was little, I remember how hard for me it was to communicate with others. Everyone was saying how shy I was, so I hoped it would change. I thought I can learn about social skills or at least have a few close friends. Still, it was hard for me to share this even with my family. I couldn’t talk to anybody about it. That bothered me even more. I heard how talking with others can help, they can give you an advice, or just make you feel understood.﻿

No connection

Later, I realized that I have a hard time connecting with others. I never felt a deep connection with anyone, and it started to bother me. How can I live like this forever? Every human being needs a social life, other people whom he can trust. Being comfortable with others, makes us feel accepted and understood. I feel like no one could understand me, and love me for who I am. It was upsetting and it still is. Can that be changed?

My Battle

I spent a lot of time thinking about the causes and how to fix them. Books and the internet were my sources, as well as my own thoughts. From the start, I knew what was holding me back the most, but it was engraved in me. It was a deep fear, fear of rejection. It was something that occupied my mind all the time. Whenever I tried to have a conversation, I could barely think about anything else. Is that person even listening to me? Does she think I am weird? Why would she find me interesting? Those questions were always on my mind like they were haunting me. The lack of confidence was not of any help either. It showed me how small my self-worth was. If you don’t like yourself, how can others like you?

Negative Mind

Another thing I realized was the way of thinking. There were more negative thoughts than positive ones, in my head. I would always focus on the bad sides of things, rather than good. I don’t know why it was like that, but it was. Every situation I found myself in, I would rate as awkward and weird. Besides that, I tend to see only negative in people’s reaction. They smiled – oh, it was a forceful smile. He looked at me – maybe my zip is open, or he finds me weird-looking. Maybe that was true, but maybe it was not. Actually, that doesn’t matter that much. My perspective is what matters, and it should be charged.

Conclusion

Dealing with our thoughts and emotions can be tough, but there are people who can help with that. I am not the only one going through this, many people are. We shouldn’t let it take over our lives, we should be the ones controlling it. What we need, is a little help. Our inner world is delicate and it requires dedication. The ones that know how that world works, are professionals. There is no shame in asking for their help.